Using an Odour-Noise Relationship to Help Place a Monetary Value on Odour Abatement

One route to establishing the economic level of odour abatement around a problem site requires that a monetary value per property be ascribed to the benefit of odour reduction. The literature on the monetary value of odour abatement was relatively sparse but a number of hedonic pricing studies into reductions in house prices produced an area weighted price reduction for the alleviation of impact in the region of £6,000 per property. No information could be obtained as to the level of odour or the degree of reduction involved. Studies into noise suggested a value of £350 per property per dB reduction, though with a high relative standard deviation. An odour-noise equivalence was established based on equal levels of community annoyance. A 1dB reduction in noise levels was equivalent to a reduction in odour concentration by a factor of 1.11. Applying the value per dB directly to odour results in a value for a 90% reduction in odour of £,600 per property. A dispersion model was used to establish the relative reductions in odour levels associated with the hedonic pricing studies into odour. This produced the larger value of £790 per dB equivalent or £17,400 per property for a 90% reduction in odour levels.